The Holman Centre

Within its 100,000 square feet of open space, unique offices, ranging from 1,000 to 30,000 square feet, are configured for each business and aligned in clusters to foster collaborative and creative energy. There are 5 floors to consider.

Building on the strength of the past, extending into the endless possibilities of the future, when you say, "We're in The Holman Centre", they immediately know where you are - in the heart of bustling, downtown Historic Summerside.

WORKINGCurrently a community of 16,000 residents, Summerside is poised for expansion. It serves an extended area of over 45,000 year round and its location on the eastern seaboard provides easy access to the world.

Having a modern outlook and preparing for the influx of people who want to live in a safer, more family oriented environment, Summerside has established itself as a desirable and affordable city. The living is easy in Summerside!

Provincial Incentives

The Innovation and Development Labour Rebate (IDLR) applies to projects in support of the development and/or commercialization of new products, processes and services that will be sold primarily beyond the borders of PEI. It is equal to 37.5 per cent of eligible salaries and wages (incremental, full time positions of 1850 hours) for the first year of a position.

The Rental Incentive Program provides a rebate of $6.00 per square foot on an annual rate of the lease cost not including utilities, taxes, and inside maintenance to businesses leasing incremental space in any community for establishment and expansion. The maximum eligible space is 10,000 square feet and the program is for the first year of a lease. The eligible company is required to sign a five year lease to qualify.

ABOUT SUMMERSIDE

An interview with Dave Perry of Carestream Health about doing business in Summerside with an emphasis on finding and retaining qualified staff for the IT sector.

Office Space Available

Holman Centre Suite 204

Located in the historic Holman building, this second floor space includes 5,400 sqft of class 'A' professional office space. The exposed brick sanded, and sealed walls reflect the character of this remodeled 150 year old historic property. The space is heated/cooled with a geothermal system so is not reliant on fossil fuels. Back up emergency power is available if needed as well as UPS service.Floor Plan

Holman Centre Suite 300

This space totals 2,000 sqft of class 'A' professional office space. This space reflects the character of this remodeled 150 year old Historic property. This space is hard wired with fiber for work stations to be relocated throughout. The space is heated/cooled with a geothermal system so is not reliant on fossil fuels. Back up emergency power is supplied. The large windows facing east and south, offer a bird's eye view of the Downtown area and is located next door to our most successful E-Health/ IT company tenant. Floor Plan

Holman Centre Suite 303-304

This space totals 9500 sq. ft. of class 'A' professional office space. The exposed brick sanded and sealed reflects the character of this remodeled 150 year old Historic property. This space is hard wired with fiber for work stations to be relocated throughout. It has a separate full functioning kitchen and attached conference room as well as a dedicated server room. The space is heated/cooled with a geothermal system so is not reliant on fossil fuels. Back up emergency power is supplied as well as UPS service. Floor Plan

An Interview with David PerryCarestream Health, January 29, 2010

Why Summerside?

First and foremost it was the staffing capabilities. PEI in general has been easy, but Summerside has worked out very well for us. There has been very little turnover and we have good quality staff. We have had easy access to staff and that is the most critical thing. There has been easy access to infrastructure as well. What they have done to the building we use, our telecommunications provider, etc. - there have been no show stoppers to our ability to operate here. We've had groups like SRDC that have been essentially enablers for us to work here as well. And so, aside from facilities and aside from infrastructure, the thing that has really made it easy for us here is the availability of talented people.

Was it hard to find staff?

There are always challenges when you are trying to find skilled staff. Finding the volumes of staff that you need is often difficult but people in large locations have that issue as well. People in large locations like the City of Chicago or Toronto, for example, because there is that much more competition there. But as far as finding talent here to be able to accomplish what we need to do; we have not had any problem. I have a folder full of resumes of people who are from PEI, or the Maritimes, who have moved away and want to move back. There has never been any challenge in finding people who want to move here. There has been the challenge of finding people with clinical backgrounds, but that is because of the domain that we work in - radiology - and, simply put, there are not a lot of radiologists or radiology techs that aren't totally consumed in their work elsewhere; so they are hard to find at the best of times. But as far as finding technology people, we have had good success when we have gone off Island, because we were looking for niche skills or more senior skills and there just didn't seem to be the volume of people available locally that were applying when we advertised here.

What would you say if another city asked you to move there?

It has happened many times that we have been approached to move out of Summerside. The answer to that is always, 'No thank you'. This is a great place - we have good resources, we have very low turnover, very low attrition. We have very good production, the facilities are great, and it enables us to do our work here. Our staff are happy here; there really is no reason to leave.

Tell me about incentives.

We've made use of some of the financial opportunities or the financial programs that exist in the province. We haven't needed to make use of a lot of those programs. I don't know about other organizations, but we certainly haven't gone after what those that were set up 10 years ago had. We've only made use of programs over the years as we've needed in order to grow and we've had to do it exponentially. We were competing with other parts of the company that were all over the world and had an economic advantage over us. But that's not why we are here in PEI; we are here because of the talent of the people and, to some degree, the physical location. Being located on the east coast enables us to travel and be close to all of North America. We can get to wherever we need to be; we can get in and out of Europe fairly easily as well.

The staff you recruited from off-Island, did you have a hard time getting them here?

As far as I know, every one of them wanted to move to PEI. They were either an Islander, married to an Islander, or they were people who have been to PEI, fell in love with the place, and decided this is where they wanted to be. So we didn't 'drag' anybody, if you will, into PEI. Maybe they felt it was the only opportunity offered to them or the best opportunity. It was generally a combination of the above; the innovative work that we were able to offer along with their decision that they wanted to live in PEI. The transition was made quite easily.